I want to welcome the 2020 board and thank them for their service to the club. Without volunteers, NSA would not exist. I appreciate all that each of the board members, Vice Commodores and chairpersons do to make NSA such a great organization and am honored to be the commodore of such a great team. AND there are volunteers beyond the board of course that help make our events happen. I thank each of you in advance for helping this year. I encourage you to seek out and accept opportunities to support events and cruises in 2020. You will not regret it and will gain some deeper relationships with your fellow members as a result!

One of the most important tasks of the first board meeting in December was to review and approve the cruise schedule. As you can see on the website, our new VC of Cruising, Carl Crothers, has done a great job planning visits to both new and old haunts, as well as mixing it up a bit with an overnight option during the weeklong. Let’s keep up the momentum, participation and excitement for our cruises in 2020. Look for those registrations to open and sign up!

2020 is the second full year of the Nautical Coop of Oriental (NCO). The 3 organizations (NSA, SCOO, ODC) remain independent but cooperating on events that support boating in Pamlico County. NSA will continue to provide leadership for the Dinghy Poker run; the rejuvenation of the Oriental Cup continues under the NCO banner, the winter Seminar series begins in January; and other activities are being planned as the NCO moves forward in a thoughtful manner under leadership from all 3 organizations.

I am sure you are all aware that one of NSA’s most cherished places, Ocracoke, was devastated by Hurricane Dorian. Since Ocracoke has given so much to NSA, and indeed to Oriental, in the aftermath of Florence, I would like to declare a 2020 “Commodore’s Challenge” for NSA to donate to a worthy cause on the island. The board has not yet determined where to target our efforts but be on the lookout for how you can contribute or participate in making a difference. At our first event, the Oyster Roast on February 22, we’ll announce the plan and solicit your support.

As we look ahead to 2020 my earnest hope is that we have a safe year with fair winds and following seas, and in NSA fashion when we arrive, we can join together for some great outings and share both food and beverages!

Please feel free to message me directly (508-331-1760, jeff.kenyon@gmail.com) if you have ideas or feedback on club related topics.

The 2020 Cruise Plan will take us back to many of our favorite destinations but with a challenging twist this year for our mid-summer Week-long Cruise, June 13-21. We will keep the club together but with a choice of routes to our primary destination, the beautiful and hospitable Albemarle Plantation Marina on the north shore of Albemarle Sound.

Members can choose to sail the traditional route – the ICW up Bay River, the Hobucken Cut, and the Pungo River-Alligator River Canal – or join a group of boats for an overnight sail direct from Oriental to Manteo, a distance of about 88nm. The two fleets will then rendezvous on the third day at Albemarle Plantation Marina for three fabulous nights. The group sailing overnight will depart early on Friday evening, June 12. Our return sail will include an anchorage in the southern Alligator River, followed by our final two nights at Dowry Creek Marina off the Pungo River near Belhaven.

You can find details about this plan and our other cruises in the Events List. As we get closer, we will provide navigational and safety information, especially for the overnight group.

The full 2020 Cruise Calendar is below. The marinas are pending confirmation. Stay tuned for more information and registration. It’s going to be a great year. We’ll see you on the water!

Easter (Spring) Cruise – April 11-12, Beaufort Docks

Memorial Day Cruise – May 23-25, Cape Lookout Anchorage

Week-long Cruise – June 13-21, Albemarle Plantation Marina

Dog Days Cruise – July 10-12, River Forest Marina, Belhaven

Lazy Days Cruise – Aug. 1-2, River Dunes Marina

Labor Day Cruise – Sept. 4-7, Ocracoke Island

Fall Cruise – Oct. 10-11, West Bay Anchorage

Halloween Cruise – Oct. 31-Nov. 1, New Bern Grand Marina

We have cruise captains so far for the Lazy Days and Labor Day cruises. Please contact me at carlcrothers52@gmail.com if you’d like to be a cruise captain.

Membership

Donna Crothers, VC Membership

S/V Sanctuary

Welcome New Members!

Welcome to 2020! We have an exciting cruise schedule and awesome land events planned, and we hope that even more sailors will join the NSA this year. We ended 2019 with a total of 37 new memberships, including our newest members, Tim McCauley and Maria Parillo of Arapahoe, with S/V Concerto in Sea, which Tim keeps at Pecan Grove Marina.

If you have friends or neighbors who might enjoy being NSA members, be sure to invite them. Our fun winter events begin soon, including the series of educational seminars starting in January, the Oyster Roast on Feb. 22 and our big membership drive, the Shrimperoo, on March 21.

Photo Contest

Lynn Scott

S/V Earendil

Nautical Co-op News

Chuck Gordon, NSA Director, NCO Rep

S/V Pelican

NSA Wear

Kathy Kenny, VC Social Media, NSA Wear Coord.

S/V Cool Change

For anyone who hasn’t been able to buy your t-shirt, cap, visor or koozie, text me at 615-828-8621 and I will make it happen. Otherwise, I will continue to post on Facebook and the Neuse Juice when the “mobile store” will be in Oriental. I wish for everyone to have a safe, healthy and happy New Year! 

Be sure to join our Facebook Page!  It's a closed page with access to members only and there are lots of fun pictures and stories shared!

Communications

Robert Pugh and Tracy Vail, VC Communications

S/V Solveig

Wild Apricot gave us an opportunity to start 2020 by learning something new with the addition of it's new editing software.  It resulted in the need for a re-design of our newsletter.  We hope you have enjoyed the new format and please bear with us as we work out any kinks of the new systems.  If you have any suggestions for the Neuse Juice or would like to submit an article, please send it to Tracy at tlvail@letstalksls.com.

Robert has been busy getting all the new events and activities onto our website.  New members of the bridge, please send Robert your biographies for the website as soon as possible.  New members, please make sure to create a profile so that you can easily access our events calendars and forums.   For any questions or input about the website, please contact Robert at rchristp@gmail.com.

The towns we have experienced were lit up for the holidays.  So pretty and festive.  I’ve decided that I really groove on a palm tree covered in Christmas lights.  It feels like the best of both worlds.  Christmas week was spent with our 3 college kids and dog in Raleigh.  They decorated, cooked and hosted.  Hallelujah, mom and dad have passed the baton to them!  We shipped our Christmas gifts back to West Palm Beach, where we are currently moored, and put away our decorations in 10 minutes.  Back to summertime!

St. Augustine looks magical for Christmas.

So many people are leaving Florida and jumping to the Bahamas.  It’s that time of year.  We are in Lake Worth North which is just south of Peanut Island and the inlet to the Atlantic.  Many boats are staged here waiting for the next weather window to go down to Ft. Lauderdale or Miami, or even on to Bimini.  Today we have some celebrities in the anchorage: Tao with Buck & Debbie O’Neil and Jennabird with Harry & Alicia Clayton.  We are all anchored next to each other.  It's an NSA meetup.  Watch out West Palm Beach!

 Pic 1- Behind us is Tao on the left and Jennabird on the right.  Harry and Alicia are on their way to visit.

 Pic 2- Debbie & Buck O’Neil, Chip Johnson, Harry & Alicia Clayton in West Palm Beach 12/30/19.

Skipper Stuff

Ahoy from West Palm Beach, FL and the Lake Worth Anchorage.

SoundWave has sailed 774 nm since the Commodore’s Ball, most of them motor-sailing.   3 ocean passages from Beaufort NC-Charleston SC-Brunswick GA-St Augustine FL, 2 were under 30 hrs, 1 was 44 hrs.   Weather forced us into the ICW from St Aug down to West Palm Beach, night & day (literally) different cruising.

We lingered in NC a bit, and needed to make some miles to get to GA where we planned to leave the boat and head to RDU for Thanksgiving.    This emboldened us to stretch our sea legs and take a bit more bite out of the Georgia Bight :).  

 Lots of NSA members have done so many cool ocean miles, our little jumps are nothing, what we call “Freshman” projects.    When we first joined the NSA, Honey & I were like sailing high school sophomores   (weekenders, first keelboat, etc.). Next 2 years we got more mature, doing weeklongs, NSA socials, 2-weekers,and our first ocean work.   Layered experience like a pearl.

Now that we have lived aboard for 6 months and nearly 4000 nm, we feel like we are Freshmen and have gone off to cruising college, learning at an accelerated rate and developing a slightly  higher level of seamanship.   (Roz and Howard on Misto would be your PhDs, grad school  :).     This article is to encourage those “high school upper-classmen” NSA members that are considering extended cruising in the near future…

. . . . you can do it!

Inside Outside Night Moves

For many of us, our first ocean sailing was with the NSA, to Cape Lookout or Masonboro Inlet.    It is a thrill before, during and after.    It is understandably intimidating at first.   The crew of SoundWave has now done about 15 outside passages, most were overnights, and have realized 3 main learnings:  

1). It is 10x more enjoyable outside on the ocean than inside the ICW

2). Night sailing is 1.5-2x better than day sailing.

3). Motor-sailing is to be expected, sometimes you “drive like a delivery skipper”

1)     Outside has no shoals, missing markers, logs, superwakes or bugs.   Or bridges.    Our air draft is 64+ and for most boats over 40’ long, waiting for tides to clear bridges kills half-days.    It is weird, we actually now prefer waiting for a drawbridge than a fixed!    Most you have to wait is 30 minutes.  We have had to anchor, cook meals, do boat projects and take a nap just to transit an ICW bridge with supposed 65’ clearance.   Groundings, cross currents, rocks and shoals do damage, and the other boat traffic require constant vigilance.   This is exhausting.   Plus, so many more days to make it southbound, adding two weeks to the trip     Fewer hazards offshore, and watch captain only does a ship check every 5-10 minutes, writes in the log every hour.    Easier and more peaceful.    As for safety and higher risk offshore, maybe not a big difference.     Fatal accidents are thankfully few in the ocean, and are more common on inland waters.   Physical damage to the boat is more severe when it happens at sea in a storm (e.g. boom breaks the gooseneck) but is more frequent and probably more likely from inland waterway hazards of all kinds.    Sailors today are blessed with great weather reports, you can trust the forecast for 3 days out, so you can avoid being punched in the nose by surprise weather.  Just make sure your boat floats, that your 25 mile VHF works and that you trust your motor.    Go outside, you can do it.

2)     Night and Day.    Night sailing brings calmer seas and steadier, less gusty winds.    ATONs and other ships are easily visible at great distances (beware of losing nav aid lights in the backlight clutter of the city if entering the inlet at night.    Easy to lose the lighted channel markers in that approach.)   Plus, the feeling of peace, independence and wonder are magnified at night alone on watch.     We are a crew of two, and we do 3 hr watches from dusk to dawn.    One of the best tips we got for new night sailors:   Go out sailing in your familiar home waters.    Head out late afternoon and come back at 9 or 10.    You will love it.   SoundWave sailed from Manteo to Oriental across the Pamlico Sound in October, last ⅓ of the trip after dark. If you are unsure about standing watches, practice at home.    Two of you stay up all night in 3 hr watches napping when off watch.  Document: take a selfie at least every 10;minutes on watch, and write a note every hour in the log.    Easier than you think.   Go out overnight. . . . you can do it.  

3)     Sailing purists like to claim they only motor in and out of the slip, and sail all the time.   We do not care :).    Here’s the skipper logic: 

a)     If you are in the ICW you are going to motor almost all the way.    Motor sailing outside is the same thing, only lots fewer hours.

b)     Wind = waves.     If the wind is above 17 kts, seas will be above 5’ and that is a mild pounding if in the wrong direction or on a short period.   Learned that when seas are predicted at 6’ on a 6 second period, that math means we get a 12-15’ wave every two hours or so.    We pay much more attention to wave forecast than wind forecast.  Motor Sailing in 2-3’ seas in 10 kts wind is easy, low stress and efficient.  Go straight across a calmer ocean, you can do it.

Sail with Eyes First

Natural navigation is a series of little joys and an important skill to develop.   I am training to be a “water-reader” and you already are one in some way.  Sail by the signs, constantly ask “what do I see” and you will become more confident and more comfortable in any boating situation.